Pirate bugs a real pest

Although attendees of the Illinois Natural History Survey's annual Insect Expo in Champaign expected to be surrounded by bugs, they didn't bargain for being bitten by them, too.

JEWELS PHRANER

Although attendees of the Illinois Natural History Survey's annual Insect Expo in Champaign expected to be surrounded by bugs, they didn't bargain for being bitten by them, too.

Like many Peoria-area residents who spent the weekend outside, attendees were swarmed by little black specks that left mosquito-bite-sized welts on any exposed skin.

"It almost felt like we were being bit by invisible bugs," said Joseph Spencer, an insect behaviorist for the Illinois Natural History Survey in the University of Illinois Institute for Natural Resource Sustainability. Spencer attended the expo over the weekend. "But they didn't seem so invisible once you felt the bite."

The biting culprits were the minute pirate bugs, which are small black bugs about the size of the head of a pin. Although their bite results in an irritating red, itching welt, the bugs don't carry diseases and are otherwise harmless.

Commonly confused for buffalo gnats, also known as black flies, these bugs aren't usually bloodthirsty. Normally, the bugs feed on insect eggs and mites, consuming corn ear worm eggs in the Illinois area.

But with the harvest starting, ear worm eggs are mostly gone and the pirate bugs are trying to consume whatever they can find, said Rich Lampman, a research scientist for the Medical Entomology Program at the Illinois Natural History Survey.

Spencer said the bugs were hungry and desperate.

"They're just a misguided insect," he said. "They're looking for any kind of moisture or food, and just poke their little beak into human's skin in an attempt to find something nutritious."

There's not more pirate bugs than usual, Spencer said, but more people might be affected this year. The summer-like weather is bringing more people than usual outdoors this time of year, which gives the "super abundant bugs" more people to try.

Peoria County Farm Bureau President Patrick Kirchhofer said he's felt the effects of the bugs first hand.

"I was helping out at a ball practice, and they were just eating me alive," he said.

Spencer said the pain of the bite is unexpected considering the size of the bug.

"They really punch above their weight," he said using a boxing phrase.

The minute pirate bugs are actually beneficial to corn crops in the area. They help control ear worm populations, and can even be bought online to help manage insect populations that destroy fruit crops.

Nature's Control, a predatory insect company in Medford, Ore., sells the bugs.

Amy Hastings, who works for Nature's Control, said it was unlikely that farmers would ever buy the bug because of its cost, but that it's fairly common for indoor gardeners to use them on small crops.

If the bugs have enough to eat, they don't bite at all, said Hastings.

"We package and handle them here, and no one has ever been bitten," she said.

Jewels Phraner can be reached at (309) 686-3196 or jphraner@pjstar.com.